[PVRCNC] PVRCNC Feb 7 program - Remote via internet

[Jim Jordan, K4QPL]

Hi guys,

 

Rob has asked me to do the program for the next PVRC-NC (East) meeting so here's a preview.

 

Have you ever been stuck in a hotel room, or at the in-laws, or with the grandkids, or at the beach when there was a contest on, or maybe a DXpedition and you need a new one, but all you had was a laptop and wi-fi access?  Heard horror stories about "latency" (bad or delayed audio), extra hardware required, etc. etc. for operating remote?

 

Well, that was me up to a couple weeks ago when I decided that was one ham radio problem that had to be solved. The criteria were: NO hardware required besides the laptop at the remote end and no expensive black boxes for the shack. 

 

Did I solve it?  For those of you who worked me in the CQ160 CW contest, (238/43/8=29,121, 8 hrs) 100% of those 238 contacts were via the internet while I was sitting by the fireplace in my living room instead of heating the shack in the bonus room over the outside garage. Even had a short run. Not a great score, but that was mostly due to a crappy 160M antenna. A paddle to greet friends would also have been nice, but I am now learning to use CTRL-K on N1MM for manual cw.   

 

Want to set up your station to do the same thing? Alan, AA4FU, has tested my system from his QTH in Cary and found no significant issues. There's one secret component that while perfectly legal, I prefer not to publicize online. Come to the meeting on Feb. 7 and if the guest wi-fi at Manchester's is up, I'll demonstrate by making a live QSO or two from my home station and do a dummy contest "run" using N1MM software (unmodified). We'll talk about the techniques for setting up your rig at home so you, too, can contest from anywhere.



See you there. 73,



Jim, K4QPL